These were the first cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin to be natively integrated which means that sellers can now receive their payments in these coins. Buyers can also pay with any of dozens of coins as supported by Shapeshift and both of these features give users even more opportunities for customization and control in this decentralized marketplace.

Bitcoin Cash and Zcash were chosen to integrate first due to their general technical compatibility with OpenBazaar–being similar to Bitcoin–and the availability of shared development support. Additional coin integrations are coming soon!

Want to learn more about coin integrations in OpenBazaar?
Please join us on Slack!

Recent Updates

Recent Updates

Recent Updates

Today we are proud to announce Bitcoin Cash and Zcash (Beta) integration in OpenBazaar! With this update users will have the option to create new nodes for processing Bitcoin Cash and Zcash (Beta) payments, respectively.

OpenBazaar already allows buyers to fund their wallets with a variety of cryptocurrencies through Shapeshift, but before this release all transactions were still resolved with Bitcoin. With the rise in Bitcoin network fees in 2017, it became clear that OpenBazaar users needed support for cryptocurrencies with fees that are more suited for small to medium sized transactions ASAP.

This release is the first step towards allowing more options for cryptocurrencies in OpenBazaar. It includes native support for nodes using one cryptocurrency at a time, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, or ZCash.

More currencies and multiple currency support per node are on our roadmap for future releases.

OpenBazaar 2.1 Release Notes

This is a major milestone release, which incorporates support for Bitcoin Cash and ZCash into the OpenBazaar platform.

New Features

Users can now choose BTC, BCH, or ZEC when installing OpenBazaar, and can switch between currencies by creating and using a new server.

Users can now block nodes they no longer want to see content from.
A warning about potential scams that links to an external page about scam prevention was added to the purchase flow.

Improvements

The way the client shuts down the server when closing was improved.

The link to the obsolete docs page was replaced by a link to the main OB website in the right click menu.

The Rawflood search provider is no longer being supported by its creator, it has been removed as a default.

When in search, the search provider call automatically includes the user’s current crypto currency.

Ratings are now shown if they are zero, so it’s more clear if a listing or user has zero ratings.

Electron was updated to v1.7.11.

If a default search provider’s logo doesn’t load, the local version is used instead.

The code for getting the version from package.json was simplified.

Line breaks are now preserved in the order details chat and the order memo.

Search now supports checkboxes in filters.

Moderators now show the crypto currency (currently just one per node) they support, and users cannot add one if they don’t support the same currency the user’s node is set to.

Bug Fixes

Fixed typos.

Fixed an issue with categories.

The name of the store in the note on a transaction is no longer missing from the order details.

The order details avatar no longer gets stuck in a loading state.

Formatting was fixed on the reviews page.

A bug in moderating orders was corrected.

The payment details address in a moderated case is now correct.

The missing shipping method was added to the order details screen.

If an order is disputed, sellers can no longer refund it.

The QR code was fixed for all supported cryptocurrencies.

A bug in the View Listing link was fixed.

Order IDs are no longer incorrectly treated as links in chat.

Internationalization
We are actively translating the text in the OpenBazaar reference client. If you are interested in volunteering as a translator, you can sign up at https://www.transifex.com/ob1/openbazaar

Special Thanks
A special thank you goes out to contributors BillStrait, hegjon and ab10460ef3, the many volunteers that provide translations, and to our testers that discovered important issues.

Recent Updates

Recent Updates

Recent Updates

The beta was released in September, and we received significant help from the community testing out the application – thanks to all the testers for your help! After publishing six beta builds and seeing over 10,000 nodes launched in the beta, we’re now launching the full, open source 2.0 release. A full press release is posted at the end of this article.

The 2.0 release is a completely new network, separate from the earlier version of the OpenBazaar network. We’ve learned much from the 1.0 version, and with this information we’ve made the new OpenBazaar one of the most user-friendly decentralized applications ever built.

New features

OpenBazaar 2.0 includes many significant improvements over the first version.

Offline stores

Because this new version is built on IPFS, OpenBazaar stores can now be accessible to buyers even when they are offline. Stores and listings can now be re-seeded by other OpenBazaar users, meaning that if a store is seeded then buyers can purchase their listings even if they are offline.

Search

Third party search providers are now accessible from within the client. Search results are much faster and more accurate than they were before.

Tor

You can now use Tor with OpenBazaar 2.0 for more privacy. You can follow these instructions on Windows; instructions for OSX and Linux are here.

Vendor tools

This new version of OpenBazaar includes lots of added features for vendors, including inventory management, expanded shipping options, variants, and more.

Built-in Wallet

The new OpenBazaar has a built-in, Segwit-ready wallet in order to easily manage purchases and payments. It also allows more complicated transactions to occur automatically, such as 1-of-2 multisig for offline ordering and timelock to prevent funds from being stuck in an abandoned escrow transaction.

For more details about why this new 2.0 is such an improvement, you can read this article.

Guides

We have a buyer’s guide and a vendor’s guide to help you understand what it’s like using the world’s largest decentralized marketplace.

You can also watch our 2.0 tutorial video to help you get started.

Open Source

OpenBazaar has always been completely open source (MIT licensed), and we encourage community contributions. Visit the server repo and client repo on Github in order to review the code, open issues, or submit pull requests.

Press release

Want More?

Once you’ve downloaded OpenBazaar, send an email to jenn [at] ob1.io with your ob:// user profile or store address AND your mailing address and we will send you a few of our OpenBazaar promotional items including stickers, pins and some surprises!

Finally, if you have questions or concerns along the way please visit our Support page for different ways to get the help you need and join the OpenBazaar community.

Recent Updates

Recent Updates

Washington, D.C. – November 1, 2017 – OpenBazaar 2.0 beta was released in September and has seen rapid growth through October resulting in over 10,000 nodes coming onto the new network in less than 50 days. Now, after nearly 2 months of testing and a successful Crypto Is Currency Day, an event with industry-wide support, the next version of revolutionary open-source software is launching.

Users from all over the world are demonstrating that their values align with OpenBazaar and they are seeking a marketplace that is secure, private and free to use. Since version 1.0 launched in 2015, the software has been downloaded over 250,000 times and this new release builds on the feedback from thousands of community members. Version 2.0 enables self-hosted stores to be more visible, provide buyers and sellers with even greater control over personal privacy, and enables developers within the OpenBazaar ecosystem with enhanced capabilities to build new applications for the marketplace.

With a beautiful new design that represents 18 months of investment, over a dozen major improvements have been made to the marketplace. Some of the most advanced and demanded include networking changes that allow stores to be accessible around the clock, privacy enhancements, a built-in SegWit-ready Bitcoin wallet, and infrastructure improvements that make it easier for developers to build their own tools on the platform. Buyers and sellers will enjoy new features that improve their ecommerce experience including inventory management, expanded shipping options, product variants, multiple search providers, and more. All users now have more control of their browsing experience with the new block & report features.

OB1 CEO Brian Hoffman, stated, “The first version of OpenBazaar proved that decentralized trade was possible, and we’ve learned so much in the past year and a half since OpenBazaar was first launched. OpenBazaar 2.0 incorporates the tens of thousands of pieces of feedback we’ve received from our community. This software represents the next major step in our efforts to liberate people from the expensive, privacy-invading intermediaries that dominate ecommerce today.”

OpenBazaar has pushed the limits of what peer-to-peer technology can do with a familiar and practical use case – online commerce – that anyone can participate in at no cost. Traditionally, peer-to-peer software has been difficult to install and run, preventing all but the most experienced users from participating, but OpenBazaar users can join the network in minutes without any technical expertise needed.

“The internet needs an open and free marketplace that allows buying and selling, using the money of the future: cryptocurrency,” says early OpenBazaar investor and blockchain advocate William Mougayar. “OpenBazaar is giving us a compelling answer to the question, ‘Where do I spend my Bitcoin?’ and this new release 2.0 gets us closer than ever to where peer-to-peer e-commerce is headed.”

Venture-backed company OB1 is leading the core development of OpenBazaar. OB1 has raised funds from Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, BlueYard, Digital Currency Group and angel investor William Mougayar in order to build and launch a completely decentralized marketplace that allows anyone in the world to buy and sell anything to anyone else, anywhere, for free.

Recent Updates

Recent Updates

Recent Updates

After a month in alpha testing, the OpenBazaar 2.0 beta has now been released. You can download the beta now. If you try the beta, please note the warnings and follow the guidelines and tutorial on the beta page.

The beta uses real Bitcoin and real listings.

If you use the beta and run into a problem, please report the issue in the OpenBazaar 2.0 beta Megathread on our subreddit, or use the built-in “Feedback” button in the client.

Known Issues

There are a few known issues with the beta that we are working to fix before the full release. Please be aware of these issues if you test the beta.

Fee estimation is tricky business and currently tends to estimate too high. We’re working on a fix.

Moderated payments should only be used for higher-value transaction, since they use multisig and require two transactions, doubling the Bitcoin fee paid and reducing the final amount the vendor receives. If the transaction is small enough, moderated payments (and dispute resolution) won’t work at all. We will soon introduce a limit preventing users from selecting moderated payments under a certain amount.

You may see the error “Too many files open” on OSX or Linux. Usually if you wait a few minutes and try the action again, this issue resolves itself. IPFS is already working on a solution to this issue, and we’ll implement it as soon as possible.

New features

OpenBazaar 2.0 includes many significant improvements over the first version.

Offline stores

Because this new version is built on IPFS, OpenBazaar stores can now be accessible to buyers even when they are offline. Stores and listings can now be re-seeded by other OpenBazaar users, meaning that if a store is seeded then buyers can purchase their listings even if they are offline.

Search

Third party search providers are now accessible from within the client. Search results are much faster and more accurate than they were before.

Tor

You can now use Tor with OpenBazaar 2.0 for more privacy. You can follow these instructions on Windows; instructions for OSX and Linux are here.

Vendor tools

This new version of OpenBazaar includes lots of added features for vendors, including inventory management, expanded shipping options, variants, and more.

Recent Updates

Recent Updates

Recent Updates

The OpenBazaar 2.0 beta will be available in beta in the next few days!

For those who are just learning about what we are doing, this new version is a major update from our previous release. There are many significant improvements that make OpenBazaar the most secure, private, and liberating trade platform online.

In preparation of the full OpenBazaar 2.0 launch later this month we’re now highlighting several of the major new features you can look forward to using. If you’re feeling adventurous you can test the beta yourself, or wait to use OpenBazaar when the release is ready.

Get ready for major improvements when searching for listings in OpenBazaar 2.0! We went back to the drawing board and recreated the search experience from the ground up.

When OpenBazaar 1.0 launched in April 2016, 3rd party developers identified the challenges around building a truly decentralized search experience and proceeded to build centralized services that crawl and curate listings across many stores on the network.

BazaarBay launched the first search engine built specifically for the OpenBazaar platform. DuoSearch and Mubiz followed shortly after.

When re-thinking search in OpenBazaar 2.0, instead of re-creating another less than ideal experience, we were strongly in favor of optimizing for the best possible user experience. Utilizing 3rd party search engines would deliver the best user experience while also helping the 3rd party ecosystem grow around OpenBazaar.

Notice how easy it is to toggle between search engines. Each search engine ranks listings differently and provide a unique set of search filters.

When shopping on eCommerce platforms such as Amazon or eBay, we’re forced to use their built in search engine, which may be artificially ranking their internal brands or highest paying partners higher than independent sellers.

In OpenBazaar, we avoid the favoritism issues by supporting a rich ecosystem of search providers.

This just scratches the surface of what is capable with search in OpenBazaar 2.0. We hope to see many more search engines spin up in the near future!

In the next search related post, we’ll dive under the hood and explain how to create and layer in your own search engine into OpenBazaar. Stay tuned!